Chap. 48.—An ACT to provide for the completion of a line of railway
from the Virginia seaboard to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, by faci:-
tating the construction of the Virginia and Kentucky Railroad,

Passed April 18, 1867.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
it shall be lawful for the Virginia and Tennessee railroad
company, South-side railroad company, Norfolk and Peters-
burg railroad company and Virginia and Kentucky railroad
company, to form one joint stock company, to be thereafter
known as The Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad Com
pany, in the manner and upon the terms hereinafter pre

scribed, and upon such further terms as tife said companies
may in general mecting respectively agree upon.

2. The said Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad com-
pany may have a capital stock not exceeding twenty millions
dollars, divided into shares of one hundred dollars each ; and
may, by mortgage or otherwise, borrow money at a rate of
interest not exceeding ten per centum per annum, and exe
cute such liens on its property and revenue as may be neces-
sary to secure the payment of interest, and finally of the
principal thereof.

3. The said Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad com-
pany shall be duly formed and constituted a body politic and
corporate, with the rights and privileges conferi@d by the
terms of this act; and by the provisions of the Code not in-
consistent therewith, whenever the stockholders, other than
the state, of any three of the four aforesaid companies shall
have accepted, in general meeting, stock in the said Atlantic,
Mississippi and Ohio railroad ompany, in lieu of the stock
which they may, at the time, hold in either of the said com-
panies, upon such basis of exchange as may have been agreed
upon: provided that no private stockholder in either of the
existing companies shall be required to capitalize, commute
or merve his stock in the stock of the Atlantic, Mississippi
and Ohio railroad company without his consent, or except on
terms agreed to by himself.

4. Upon the formation of the said Atlantic, Mississippi
and Ohio railroad company, as thus provided, the Board of
public works are hereby empowered and instructed to sell to
the said Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad company the
bonds or claims held by the commonwealth against the afore-

said railroad companies, on account of loans heretofore made
to the same, for an equal amount of state bonds; and the
said board are likewise empowered and instructed to sell to
the said Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad company the
stocks held by the state in the aforesaid Virginia and Ten-
essee, South-side, Norfolk and Petersbur g, and Vir ginia and
Kentucky railroad company, at the rate of one share for one
hundred dollars of state bonds; and the said board are fur-
ther empowered and instructed to transfer and assign the
said bonds or claims and stocks to the said Atlantic, Missis-
sippi and Ohio railroad company, upon payment tor the same
ax aforesaid; such sales, transfers and assignments to be made
when and as demanded by the said Atlantic, Mississippi and
Ohio railroad company, part passu, upon payment as afore-
said,-the bonds of the state received as proceeds of sale to be
eancelled in Hguidation of the public debt. The sale and
transter ot bonds ‘and claims provided for by this section
shall not be made until aiter the purchase of the stocks au-
thorized by said section is made: provided, that such pur-
chase of stocks of the state in the said railroads and bonds
of the South-side railroad and Norfolk and Petersburg rail-
road, shall be made on or before the first day of May, igh:
teen hundred and sixty-eight, otherwise this act shall he null
and void: provided, that ‘until the said Atlantic, Mississippi
and Ohio railroad company shall have paid to the state the
amount of their stocks in the four aforesaid companies and
the bonds and debts, and so forth, of the South-side and Nor-
folk and Petersburg railroad companies belonging to and due
to the state in said companies in manner and form as atore-
said. they shall not be authorized to take possession of or in
any way interfere with the present management or organiza-
tion of the said Virginia and ‘Tennessee railroad company.

5, In consideration of the privileges granted in the pre-
ceding section of this act, it shall be the duty of the Atlantie.
Mississippi and Ohio railroad company, within five years trom
the passage of this act, to construct and complete the railroad
of the Virginia amd Kentucky company trem Bristol-Good-
son to Cumberland gap; and for that purpose all the powers
conferred on the Virginia and Kentucky railroad company
are hereby vested in the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio ruil-
road company: provided that the said Atlantic, Mississippi
and Ohio railroad company, agd the Virginia and Tennes:ee

railroad company, in the event that the said last named com-
pany shall not become consolidated with the other companies

herein named as proposing to form the said Atlantic, Missis-
sippiand Ohio railroad company, as provided by this bill,

shall allow the Richmond and Lynchburg railroad, or any

other railroad which may be constructed or extended within

the next ten years, from any point at or near Richmond to
any point at or near Lynchburg, to unite and connect with
either of the said roads, or any improvements of cither of
them, at or near the snid city of Lynchburg, and run their
engines and cars over the said railroads from such points of
connection westward; and the said engines and cars shail
have all the facilities for passing and repassing over the said
railroads as aforesaid, as shall and may be enjoyed by the
engines and cars of the aforesaid railroads themselves: and
provided further, that these aforesaid railroads shall have the
same rights and privileges of passing and repassing likes
trains over the Richmond and Lynchburg railroad to and
from Richmond; but neither company shal be entitled to
take any local freights or passengers along the line of the
other.

6. The Board of public works shall have the right, and it
shall be their duty, to prescribe the rates, rules and regula-
tions under and upon which the privileges as aforesaid ‘shall
be exercised, unless the companies themselves shall agree
upon proper terms.

v t: pon all such stocks as shall have been sold, transferred
and assigned, as atoresaid, to the said Atlantic, Mississippi -
and Ohio railroad company, the said company shall be en-
titled to vote in either and in each of the aforesaid railroad
companies respectively, by the same scale regulating the vote
of the state as now provided by the Code ‘of eighteen hun-
dred and sixty.

8. It shall be the duty of the said Atlantic, Mississippi and
Ohio railroad company to construct a branch road from some
point on the Virginia and Tennessee railroad, at or near the
Central depot, northward in the direction of the mouth of
the Greenbrier river, to the eastern boundary line of West
Virginia; and shall have all the powers necessary and proper
for that purpose conferred on railroad companies by the Code.

9. The said Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad com-
pany shall be subject to the provisions of any general railroad

law passed by the commonwealth regulating the charges upon
the railroads thereof; but shall not be subject to any law in
this respect, nor to any restraint or restriction, which does
not apply to all the railroads in the state, or to any law in
conflict with the terms of this act: provided, that the rate
which shall obtain upon the said railroads shall be pro rata
as to all the cities thereof, and that the same, on this basis,
shall not be higher than may be extended to other places be-
yond the limits of the state; and that the same facilities in the
issuing of through bills of lading, shall be granted to shippers
at any ofthe cities of Virginia, as may be allowed at Norfolk or
places outside of Virginia, to shippers of freight to be trans-
ported over the said Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad :
and provided further, that the said Atlantic, Mississippi and
Ohio railroad company shall establish and always maintain
with the James river and Kanawha company, the same pro
rata rates as may prevail on the said railroad line, and the

same arrangements for the issuance of through bills of lading
as may be made with connecting railroads ; shall assume fully
the responsibility and obligations imposed on the Virginia
and Tennessee railroad company by the twelfth section of an
act entitled an act authorizing a subscription, for the com-
monwealth, to the stock of the Virginia and Tennessee rail-
road company, passed March sixth, eighteen hundred and
forty-nine, and shall permit no delay or detention of freight
and tonnage passing to or from the James river and Kanawha
canal at Lynchburg: and that, in all pro rata arrangements
between the said parties, the lenath of canal from Richmond
to Lynchburg shall be regarded as one hundred and ten miles.

10. That it shall be lawtul for the said Atlantic, Missis-
sippi and Ohio railroad company to acquire not exceeding
two millions acres of land, for the payment of the subscrip:
tions of steck or by purchase : provided, however, it shall
not be lawful for such company, at the expiration of ten years
from the completion of the Virginia and Kentucky railroad,
to hold more lands than shall be deemed necessary for the
use of their road and its branches.

11. The said Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad com-
pany may elect such number of directors as the stockholders
thereof may prescribe, and may provide such by-laws for the
government of the said company, and for the ap pointment
of such officers and agents as may be necessary tor the man-
avement of its affairs; and the state shall have no representa-
lion in the board of directors or meetings of stockholders of
said cnnipety.

12, Each stockholder shall be entitled to vote in the meet-
ings of stockholders of the said Atlantic, Mississippi and
Ohio company, one vote for every share of stock represented
by him.

13. It shall be the duty of the company which may be
formed under the authority of this act, to file within thirty
days after its organization, with the Board of public works
of the state, a duly certified copy of the terms of such or-
ganization.
14. The state reserves the right to connect with the works
of this company any other werk of internal improvement,
and no discrimination shall be made in the charges of said
company against the trade and travel of any connecting work.

15. ‘This act shall be in force from its passage.